Haven't posted here in years, but since I have now been a member of Neowin for over 10 years, I thought I should get my ass in gear. So does anyone have a playbook and use it for more than just a doorstop? I've found the only use for it in my world is for my kids to watch some videos on, and the occasional kids game. It is annoying to use for mail, browsing, and well just about anything else. Generally the apps suck and since there is very little standardization for app creation, they suck at best on average.

I know there is a way to use android apps on it, but I can't be bothered to use it for that.

The messages app works fine, although bizarrely it works better in portrait mode than landscape, and that excludes Twitter DMs and Facebook messages which take ages to refresh, but email syncing is great. The Calendar app is better than any other I've used, particularly when I'm working past midnight - it actually shows it visually in a way that makes sense instead of taking up the entirety of two days.

When I originally got it, it was actually fine for web browsing, but as time goes by the web gets more and more demanding. I'm finding my laptop with 8GB of RAM is starting to stutter on some websites, so the 1GB of the PlayBook is really insufficient, especially if you're doing multi-tab browsing. I blame that more on stupid web developers than the PlayBook though. They should realise that people are using smartphones to browse the web more and more, and should design for smartphones first and desktops with discreet graphics cards last.

It's also been getting a fair bit of use as an e-reader lately, although I could do with a higher resolution screen for that.

I really think that RIM dropped the ball with the playbook, they limited it to existing BlackBerry owners by having it access some of the functions like email via a BlackBerry which, I think, meant that people like me who don't own a BlackBerry looked for alternatives.

The Playbook itself isn't a bad device but its limited appeal is what killed it.

It's a content consumption device, same as any other tablet. I use mine to bum around the Internet (which it does very well with a fully functional Flash player), read books (I like the PWM-flicker free display more than my eInk reader), listen to music or podcasts with Bluetooth streaming, or stream media from my desktop with ES File Explorer or Kalemsoft's Player. I keep up on my personal email with it too. There are quite a few games available that look impressive and play responsively, but I generally leave those duties to my Xbox. If I need desktop software, it does a decent job as an RDP client too.

The battery life is fine, the hardware is sturdy, it's not restrictive in the types of files it accepts or works with. Except for Skype, Netflix, and an SSLVPN client, I don't really have any more desires of a tablet. It's never going to replace my desktop, and I don't want it to try to.

I use my playbook quite often. With full QT Support it makes developing apps fun and easy. Has solid web browsing capabilities, and with a surprising number of working android apps/games it's a very solid device. I don't own any other BB products, so in no way do I find it's limited to existing BB Users.

I use mine just fine for email, browsing, games, and pandora. Can't stand using an iPad after using the gestures on the Playbook and my touchpad with android mostly sits.

It's a great piece of tech and hopefully once Blackberry 10 launches it'll get a few missing apps. Yes most of the apps are crap but so are most of the apps on iOS and Andriod. Of course you'll get the typical childish comments like above from this site.

I really think that RIM dropped the ball with the playbook, they limited it to existing BlackBerry owners by having it access some of the functions like email via a BlackBerry which, I think, meant that people like me who don't own a BlackBerry looked for alternatives.

The Playbook itself isn't a bad device but its limited appeal is what killed it.

Every so often I pull mine out just for a laugh. Last time I talked about it it was in the comments on Engadget where someone convinced me that it was better now, there were more apps, good apps, etc. I got on and 99% of all apps are garbage just like before. The device hardware is fantastic (or was at the time, and is still better than other tablets in some ways), it's a shame we can't throw another OS on there. Blackberry as a whole is completely dead. This whole rebuilding thing they are doing is a waste of what money they had left. I've seen the computer industry enough, people have moved on from blackberry and they aren't going back. Too many large companies spent money to migrate from Blackberry to iPhone mostly for corporate phones (Android still isn't good for that), they aren't going to go back to Blackberry now.

RIM isn't relying on the corporate market for BB10, and they've got a huge consumer base in a number of countries. Indonesia is a great country to start from in Asia, and Canada is good to have for North America. Nokia actually surprised a lot of analysts because they were ignoring a number of countries that Nokia was paying attention to. The same is the case with RIM.

PBOS is a better operating system than any other available right now, and BB10 will only be better than that. The app selection is the only drawback, and the fact of the matter is that as the app selection grows, it will become more appealing to a larger number of people. There's always the odd person who uses a niche program that's only available on one platform (WordPerfect for legacy Windows in my case) and those people wouldn't consider making the switch. Everyone else will take a look.